Wood Type Revival joins Typekit

We’re delighted to announce that Wood Type Revival – a Kickstarter-backed effort by Matt Braun and Matt Griffin to turn rare, historic wood type into digital fonts – has partnered with Typekit to bring these exciting display fonts to the web. Naturally, we are serving these designed-for-large-use faces with PostScript-based outlines so they look fantastic on Windows.

These wild old faces exist still in basements, garages, and attics — occasionally gasping for air on Ebay, before being swallowed up again, away from the public eye.

We wish to scour the globe for 10 of the most prized fonts of wood type we can acquire. And then we will print these faces on our trusty Vandercook proof press, and carry them over into the world of vectors and Opentype font-ery.

A hefty, rugged slab-serif, Fatboy packs a wallop. It’s great for capturing attention in big, short bursts. And the larger it’s used, the more prominent its negative space and irregular contours become. Fatboy’s thickness makes it a prime candidate for techniques like Trent Walton’s CSS Mask-Image & Text.

French Clarendon Ornamented

Charmingly condensed, with familiar nooks and notches, French Clarendon Ornamented is equal parts homegrown and hand-carved. Even at extremely large sizes, it is surprisingly efficient thanks to its narrowness, but will still be visible from across the room.

With its high waist, sweeping limbs, and heartfelt idiosyncrasies, Roycroft feels like the epitome of the Arts and Crafts movement. It’s hard to imagine a typeface more appropriately representative of this style.

Upgrade to a Personal plan or higher for access to Wood Type Revival fonts. If you’re already a paying Typekit customer, enjoy the new fonts! If you’ve never given Typekit a try, sign up — it’s free! Upgrading is easy, whenever you’re ready.

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Tim Brown

Type Manager for Typekit since 2010, practicing typography and web design every day. I write, speak, and make tools to share what I learn. I try to be helpful. I love my wife, kids, family, friends, teachers, and dogs. I'm a volunteer firefighter.